My Nest Egg

So, I had some wires, and I thought I would sell them to the metal recyclers.  Only, I didn't have much wire, so then I thought I would roll them up in a wire ball, and keep adding to it, until I had a lot and it would be super valuable.  And it's vaguely egg-shaped, and maybe it'll be big enough by the time I retire, so it can be my nest egg...  Get it?  But by the time I got this done, I was so done with wires, and I'm just going to throw it in the recycle.  It's a trifle depressing to be making a ball of wires to fund your retirement.  And it did make a pretty picture, so making it wasn't a complete waste of several hours.

What the heck is a nest egg?  I'm glad you asked!  In 30 seconds of googling, I wasn't convinced that nest eggs in farm life work, but people have believed a lot of things over the years.  Due to the sorcery of compound interest, nest eggs for retirement funds do work.  Wire balls, I don't know.

Transmogrified

Poor lighting, but this bookshelf is filthy, and powder blue to boot!

First coat of super shiny Pink Sea Salt!
After cleaning, drying, buying paint, setting off the theft detector at the store, etc.
All the usual pre-project hijinks.

2nd coat!  That's looking better!

And voila!  Clean, painted, shiny and full of books!

Weekly infotainment:  The title of this post is Transmogrified, because I have transmogrified the bookshelf.  It used to be a dirty powder blue, and now it's a shiny Pink Sea Salt!  Calvin & Hobbes was certainly my first introduction to the word, and I find it endlessly useful for describing transmogrifications.

P.S.  I always wonder in befores & afters, how believable is this supposed to be when the lighting, angle, background, etc. is so different?  Obviously, something photographed at the right angle, in the right light, with the right background is going to look improved!  However! How much sense would it make for me to have hauled that dirty, ugly bookshelf to my room, and put all my nice stuff on it to take a picture of a completely comparable before?  Lesson learned, universe.  Lesson learned.

P.P.S.  Obviously, this is a craft.  And when I think of crafts, which is every day, it is to the tune of My Humps, and in my head I replace the word Humps with crafts.  I had to google the music video for this post, and you could have knocked me over with a feather, when I realized it was the Black-Eyed Peas.  I have been singing this song (in my head, words changed) for years, and never, ever would have guessed!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

You may have noticed I didn't post anything for 3 weeks!  Or you probably didn't notice, but I'm telling you, I was too busy having fun on vacation to post anything about it.  A very clever person might have lined up some posts to publish prior to the vacation festivities, but I'm not often accused of being very clever!  Now that everyone has gone home, and I have to go to bed on time every night so I can get up for work the next day, I've sorted out my pics, and I'm back at it.  

So, here's the photo round-up:  Lots of food & Lots of pretty!

Dessert Shooter at Applebee's!

Beah at the pool!

Beah at Jolly Roger's!

Sliders!

Waffle cone!

Pretty moonrise!

Visiting kitty!

Pretty hot air balloon!

Little frog!

Mukilteo!

My night with Neil Diamond!  (Neil Diamond not pictured)

P.S.  I watched more movies in 2 weeks, than I usually watch in a year:  Mirror, Mirror, Tower Heist, Happy Feet 2, Big Miracle, John Carter, Lockout...

Say Hello To My Leettle Friend

Hummingbirds love my flowers!

And they love my fence!  I think the wire gauge is just right for their teeny tiny feet!

How dang cute is this?!?

Independence Day!

Well, this is neither Crewel, nor Unusual.  Except in the sense that the 4th of July only happens once a year on this planet.  And not everyone takes a million pictures of fireworks.  I exaggerate.  I only took 115 pics, and then I chose my 45 faves, and then I narrowed it down to the coolest 15, with which to accost you.  You're welcome.

Sometimes Nature is Sad

I did a little research on abandoned baby moles.  Btw, the internet is full of misinformation.  I know this is not news, but I was shocked when I saw some of the "references" for information about moles on the internet.  It's enough to make me want to be a mole researcher, and fill the internet with facts.  God help us all.  One result was the most comical, and touched on all the basics, plus it's a Mac Forum, and Mac users are the best  (sorry PC.  (not really)).  1.  Don't assume you have an abandoned baby anything.  Leave it where it is, and hope for the best.  2.  Call a wildlife conservation organization.  Um, I don't believe there is an organization in this universe, that is interested in saving moles.  Doesn't exist.  3.  There are no pet mole stories, where a baby was rescued, raised and rehabbed to be set free, or lived happily-ever-after in a hamster habitat.  That doesn't happen.  4.  I don't actually want moles in my yard.  When a cat catches one, I rejoice.  Obviously, I don't imagine that the mole has a family, and will be missed.  My yard looks like a golf course, if there was a golf course that was mostly rough, with a million mini sand traps made of dirt.  Moles do that.


Leaving them alone was the right thing.  If Mama Mole just stepped out, she'll come back and want to find her babies where she left them.  If Mama Mole got picked up by a hungry cat, those babies better eat worms and like it.  I had to know how this story ends, so I went out to survey the area a few days later.  Out of four babies, I found one dead.  That isn't to say the other three lived, I just didn't find them.  I can't tell you how sad I feel about this.  Back to the internets.  This comic pretty much sums up the horror I'm feeling.  I feel so bad about this, it's like I feel responsible.  And I know I'm not, but I almost just deleted all those pics, like taking those pics caused it or deleting them could undo it.  Then I decided some BS about celebrating the baby moles' lives, and not squandering the precious gift of seeing them at all, blah, blah, blah.  Kill me now.  So, sometimes nature is sad, and I'm just putting it all out there.    

My Baby Moles

When I saw these out of the corner of my eye, and looked down, time stopped.  First, I realized they were baby moles.  Second, the urge to pick them up and hold them was overwhelming.  Simultaneously, my conscience told me I was absolutely not allowed to touch them at all, not even for a second.  At the same time, I was imagining picking them up, and taking a picture of them in my hand.  Concurrently, I knew I couldn't take that pic, because I was absolutely not allowed to pick them up.  However!  I could take their pics on the ground.  The inside of my head was like a cartoon, with thought bubbles, an angel in one ear and the devil in the other, and smoke about to pour out from the gears turning so fast.  Time started again, and I ran in to get my camera.  

I try not to upload every pic of an event, and even now, I didn't upload every pic, but there are a lot.  I can not choose between these, and if you were to play them in a sped-up slideshow, you would get a feel for how fast these babies move.  In retrospect, I could have made a short movie in order to illustrate this.  At that moment, I didn't have a thought in my head.  There were four baby moles that I saw, and I just wanted to capture every second of each one.

My mom is a genius, and suggested I take a pic of the baby moles with a quarter, for comparison.  Getting a baby mole to pose next to a quarter, without picking the mole up or touching it all, is very difficult.  I kept moving the quarter, and the baby moles kept doing their thing, which has nothing to do with quarters.  

You can stop here, meditating on the mind-blowing cuteness of baby moles.

Or hear why sometimes nature is sad.